Luxury Homeowners Who Ditched the Dining Room

With more meals eaten in the kitchen, on the patio and in front of the TV, luxury homeowners are increasingly converting their dining rooms into libraries, dens and other flex spaces.

Some homeowners have eliminated their formal dining rooms and found creative new uses for the space. Tad Dekko created a dining study lined with books and a glass wall that retracts into the ceiling. Photo: Brent Bingham for The Wall Street Journal.

In an era when most people eat at the kitchen island or in front of the TV, the dining room has become perhaps the least-used room of the house. Now, some luxury home owners are eliminating their dining rooms altogether, instead using the space for libraries, dens and "living pavilions"—in which dinner may sometimes be served.

After a two-year, $6.25 million renovation, Tad Dekko's 146-acre Pony Up ranch outside Vail, Colo., has an equestrian center, a wellness facility with an indoor pool, and a glass-walled garage that doubles as a movie theater. In fact, the only thing the 8,600-square-foot house doesn't have is a dining room.

Slideshow: The New Dining Space

In a $6.25 million remodel of his ranch near Vail, Colo., Tad Dekko built what he calls a 'dining study' that is lined with 2,500 books. 'It was never intended as a dining room,' Mr. Dekko says. Brent Bingham for The Wall Street Journal

Instead, Mr. Dekko, an entrepreneur and philanthropist based in Tierra Verde, Fla., created what he and his interior designer Andrea Schumacher call the "dining study," lined with 2,500 books. "It was never intended at the beginning as a dining room," said Mr. Dekko, who is 59. "I said, 'First of all, I want one room that can house all my books—I had not had that in my life.' "

When the Dekkos throw a dinner party, the casters on the study's three custom-built walnut desks can be interlocked to create one long dining table. The glass wall is designed to retract into the ceiling, so they can roll the table out onto the stone deck and dine al fresco by a man-made stream. "It allows us to seat probably 20 to 25 people," said Mr. Dekko—not that he does very often. "It took me a while just to meet 25 people," he said.

Anne Dubbs and her husband, Richard, a banker, bought a prewar apartment in the landmark Eldorado building on New York's Central Park West five years ago. The dining room—a dark, boxy space facing a concrete wall—seemed like a dead zone. "It didn't make sense for us," said Ms. Dubbs, who owns a fabric and wallpaper company.

During a 15-month renovation—Ms. Dubbs declined to reveal the cost—her designer Alexander Doherty and contractor Chip Brian added crown moldings and baseboards to the room, and lined two walls with built-in bookcases wired with library lamps. It is now a combination library, television, and "check-writing room," said Ms. Dubbs. There's also a dog bed for the family Labrador: "She likes to be in the same room with us as we watch TV."

The Dubbs eat most of their meals at a banquette area in the kitchen. Their formal drop-leaf dining table is parked against a wall in the living room, its five leaves stowed behind a sofa. When they entertain, they set the table up in the apartment's wide limestone foyer.

For Ann Liston, a partner in a Democratic political media firm in Chicago, getting rid of the dining room of her four-bedroom Bucktown house was a savvy political decision. When Ms. Liston threw a fundraiser and invited 120 people, local designer Angela Stone helped her transform her dining alcove into a lounge, both expanding the available entertaining space and carving out a private nook within it. They pushed Ms. Liston's dining table out into the front room, and grouped four custom-made slouchy chairs—upholstered in cowhide for an "urban cowgirl look." Ms. Liston's new salon—part of a $50,000 decorating project—was a hit.

‘It allows us to seat probably 20 to 25 people. It took me a while just to meet 25 people.’

—Homeowner Tad Dekko

"At the same time the house is full of lots of people, there's an intimate gathering place where conversations can occur and secrets can be shared and people can corner off—that was my intention," said Ms. Liston, 47, who recently married Chicago Sun-Times journalist Dave McKinney.

When Judy Opatrny and her husband Donald, former partner at Goldman Sachs,GS-1.03% began designing a home in Jackson, Wyo., on 35 acres near Grand Teton National Park, they gave their architect Eric Logan some mandates. The couple, both in their 60s, wanted a central living area designed around their collection of contemporary art. The space had to work for big parties, yet exude a sense of simplicity and warmth. And they didn't want a dining room.

"In Europe and also back East, we did have formal dining areas," said Ms. Opatrny, whose family has lived in London and Greenwich, Conn. "In this house, we wanted to have more of an open flow."

Hewed from cedar, zinc and Montana sandstone, the contemporary house on a butte was completed almost two years ago; its market value was appraised at more than $10 million in 2013, according to Teton County records. The central living and dining space—what Mr. Logan calls "the living pavilion"—is a 1,200-square-foot room with a 15-foot fireplace and walls of windows looking out at the Tetons and distant Yellowstone. A twisting Murano-glass light sculpture by Venini stretches down from the ceiling, and geometric abstractions by painter Sean Scully hang on opposite walls. The dining area, defined by a pair of glowing copper chandeliers over the table, is set next to a grand piano.

"In the summer, it's so open and airy and you're part of the view. In the winter…the focus really revolves around the hearth." The room has proved equally irresistible to local moose, she said, particularly the mothers and the calves: "They like to take naps in that corner window next to the piano."

The prospect of outdoor living amid rolling hills and grape arbors drew Noreen McGuire to a two-bedroom home in the Napa Valley town of St. Helena, Calif. "I'm completely surrounded by vineyards," said Ms. McGuire, who paid approximately $4 million for her cottage in 2010.

When she's in Napa—her main residence is in Chicago—Ms. McGuire does almost all her eating and entertaining outside. So she turned her dining room into a relaxed reception area and sitting room that bridges the indoor and outdoor spaces.

The exterior wall was blown out, replaced by a set of wide French doors and windows that open onto a pergola-covered terrace. Comfortable wing chairs are grouped around a marble table heaped with books on architecture and design. The room has become Ms. McGuire's favorite place to sit with morning coffee, or to look out on her olive and lemon trees when it rains. "I have a couple of crystals around and there's always flowers," she said. "It's how you are welcomed into the home, and that's why I wanted it to be special."

However infrequently a formal dining room may be used, many homeowners aren't ready to abandon it altogether. Toll Brothers,TOL0.08% a leading luxury-home builder, sold 4,184 custom-built houses in 2013—all with dining rooms.

"People are coming with dining room furniture and need a place to use it," said Tim Gehman, director of design.

But even formal dining rooms are becoming less stuffy. Designer Kelly Wearstler encourages clients to swap the long lacquered table for a group of smaller "modules" in durable materials like marble or perforated bronze to create a more casual multiuse room where the kids can work on school projects. "Propriety is so yesterday," said home-design guru Jonathan Adler, who only began using the living room of his Manhattan apartment after he put a ping-pong table in it.

When it comes time to sell, high-end homes that lack a dining room can pose challenges. "If you're looking at the luxury market on [New York's] Upper East Side, 99% of the time, people are looking for a formal dining room," said Eleonora Srugo, an agent with New York City's Skroka DE team. Were she to market an apartment with a converted dining room, "I'd pull up the original floor plan and identify the dining room as a dining room."

But the true beauty of a dining room conversion may be how simple it is to undo. Sotheby's agent Colette Harron cites an 1870 riverfront mansion now on the market in Essex, Conn., for $3.48 million. The owner transformed a staid dining room with river views into an inviting family room, adding a gas fireplace and built-in bookshelves and columns. "It's bright and it's elegant…and it's versatile," she said. "It could be turned into a dining room again."

If you don't have families, if you don't have kids, then a formal dining room doesn't make a ton of sense. But given those first two requirements I don't think we want this trend to become too widespread.

As a real estate broker in Atlanta I can't imagine a traditional home without a formal dining room. Perhaps owners of condos don't feel the need for this, but I can't imagine a family gathering without traditional table and chairs in a special setting. In fact Sunday afternoons we still have our meal in the dining room even though it is a lot of fuss. Some traditions don't die!

As an interior designer I have been trying for years to get people to ditch the dining room for an office or whatever. A dining room represents a very expensive investment that is little used, especially if you have a nook table elsewhere and a breakfast bar.

Historically the dedicated formal dining room as we know it didn't become popular until the end of the 1700's. Prior to that servants (we all have them, right?) would set up planks on something like a sawhorse and throw a table cloth over the whole thing. Dining chairs were around though.

As Toll Brothers homes illustrate, most people still want a separate dining room. It's elegant, and with the combination open kitchen living room, you're being sold a dying trend designed as an illusion of more space by builders, along with what amounts to eating in the kitchen with all the odors and noise. I think the people who don't want dining rooms are the same people who decide to have a shower only and not a bath. These changes can hurt resale, because they're expensive to change if even possible. As you age, you'll want more luxury. If we all could afford it, we'd have dining rooms and a staff waiting on us, and they'd be cooking for us in a kitchen separate from the house where all the chaos and noise and odors would belong. A dining room gets us closer to that.

Somehow, I just don't think you can beat having the children and grandchildren gathered around the dining room table; especially a table that has been in the family for generations in a dining room that is in a house that has been in the same family for many, many years.

We converted our dining room 10 years ago into a wine tasting/informal dining room. Limestone and stucco walls, barnwood ceiling, indirect lighting, built in wine racks and display cabinets. We turn off the tv and turn on the audio system at dinner time. It's the most used room in the house, my wife and I eat and relax there 3 or 4 times a week, often spending 2-3 hours over dinner and a good bottle of wine (or two).

Nothing is "dead". Some people like to eat in a dining room, some not. It is strictly individual choice. The same way one could say "the books are dead - all you need is an electronic device and you store then in a cloud", and yet the guy described in the article puts 2500 books into his former dining room...

My wife and I base our decision on couch versus dining table based on season (more casual in warmer months), time of day (early = table, late = couch), and type of food (how easy is it to eat off lower coffee table or your lap)...

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